Kielioppi virheiden varjossa : kielitiedon merkitys lukion saksan kieliopin opetuksessa

Abstract

Esa Penttinen tutki kieliopin opetuksen merkitystä lukion saksan kielen opetuksessa. Hän tarkasteli kieltä ja erityisesti sen kielioppia oppimisen kohteena ja toisaalta kielen oppimista.- Opettajien ja opiskelijoiden suhtautuminen virheisiin ja niiden korjaamiseen osoittaa, että vieraan kielen opetuksessa painottuu enemmän se, mitä pitää osata, kuin se, miten oppiminen etenee. Tämä näkyi muun muassa siten, että kieliopin oppiminen ymmärretään muistamiseksi, epäonnistuminen tulkitaan välinpitämättömyydeksi tai unohtamiseksi ja vaikuttava opettaminen nähdään tiedon tehokkaana siirtämisenä opettajalta oppilaalle, Penttinen havaitsi.

The object of this study is to deepen the understanding of the significance of grammar instruction in the context of German instruction in the upper secondary school. In the construction of the theoretical framework of the study, the set-up of the issues of the study, and the implementation of the study, the topic is approached from two different viewpoints: on one hand by examining the language and its grammar in particular as the object of learning, and on the other hand the learning process of the language. The study presents three questions, the first two being directed at errors and at the picture taking shape of the German language instruction based on errors. The third question is directed at the effect of the German language instruction plan in the teaching of German grammar being implemented in the upper secondary school. The research material consists of quantitative and qualitative material. For the quantitative error analysis the material included essays written by 98 students in German class in the upper secondary school, and essays written by 96 graduating students in the German language matriculation exam. In addition, 43 German language instructors in the upper secondary school and 435 upper secondary school German language students responded to questionnaires with the same content, one of which requested responses from the teacher’s point of view, and the other from the student’s point of view. The questionnaires included nine structured and three open questions. The questionnaire sought data about the significance attached by teachers and students to the instruction of German language grammar and to errors. The data acquired by the questionnaires was analyzed with statistical methods to categorize material for the qualitative analysis. The information from the quantitative error analysis is also used to help choose 15 essays for a more thorough qualitative analysis. The error analysis constructs from the essays included the identification and classification of the errors found into morphologic, syntactic, and lexical errors as well as into their subcategories. The quantities of errors in various categories are manually counted. Two measures were constructed for the statistical analysis. One measure was required for the analysis of the material based on errors, and the other for the analysis of the data acquired with the structured questionnaires. The qualitative analysis includes the 15 essays chosen for the more thorough analysis, the results of the statistical analyses, and the responses given to the open questions. By comparing these both to one another and in the light of the theory and the research findings presented in the research literature, interpretation and insight is sought into the grammatical errors made by students. The essential findings of the study are as follows:1. By comprehensively analyzing the text by students who made errors information is found on whether they mastered the rules of grammar mechanically or with understanding. The frequency of the types of errors found do not tell how well the students knew the related rules of grammar.2. The attitudes of the teachers and the students towards errors and their correction indicate that in foreign language instruction the emphasis lies more on what has to be mastered, rather than on how the process of learning is progressing. This was evident for instance in the way that the learning of grammar is understood to be memory work, failure is considered inattention or forgetting, and the effective transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student is considered impressive instruction.3. The knowledge of a structure of grammar does not guarantee the ability of a student to apply the knowledge in practice.4. Teachers are familiar with the content of the principles of the instruction plan from the year 1994, but its influence on instruction is negligible.How does the object of the study given to the research deepen the understanding of the significance of grammar in the German language instruction in the upper secondary school? From the point of view of improving instruction the most crucial finding arising from the research is the negligible effect of the knowledge acquired from the studies on learning on classroom instruction. Teachers express acknowledgement of the individual nature of human learning, but in practice the learning of grammar knowledge is regarded rather as the mechanical reception of knowledge than as the process of internalizing knowledge. Correspondingly, the students expect the teachers to offer a ready model of what is correct or incorrect. Like the teachers, they consider poor learning outcomes to be the result of the fact that the student is not working hard enough or that the student is inattentive to the homework. The reliability of the study was enhanced by approaching the object of the study consistently both from the viewpoint of the language and of the language learner. In addition, reliability was increased by the use of data triangulation; the findings of the quantitative and the qualitative analyses link together and complement each other. When the research report was written, the various stages of the research process have been indicated so as to enable the reader to observe from which viewpoint the researcher was looking into the topic